Shares of Apple continue to make forward progress this week with as a pair of Wall Street analysts issuing new research reports that raise their price target on the stock in light of upcoming product catalyst.

In a report to clients, Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu conceded to being a bit over-protective about the stock in recent months, even pulling it off his firm's focus list recently due to concerns that investors in a bear market wouldn't be willing to pay more than a 15x multiple for shares in quality hardware companies.

"However, it appears that investor sentiment has turned a bit more constructive and [they are] willing to pay for quality names as we have seen with Apple, Research in Motion, Google, and Amazon," he wrote. "Recently, both Juniper and F5 networks preannounced revenue misses but better profits, and investors rewarded both with higher stock prices."

Wu also said several catalysts in the months ahead are likely to help drive shares higher, starting with Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June that's widely expected to give way to a third-generation of iPhone handhelds running the company's new iPhone Software 3.0.

Another positive expected around the same time is the launch of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, which should further fuel Mac sales that have already benefitted from the early March launch of new desktop models. Also factored into the analyst's view is the "potential for a new form factor, perhaps Apple's answer to the netbook, with a large screen iPod touch-Mac hybrid."

Other catalysts could include lower service plan pricing for the next-gen iPhone models and an AppleTV update, he added. Wu raised his price target on Apple shares to $152 from $120, assuming a 19x multiple on his calendar 2009 free cash flow estimate of $8.

"The bottom line is that even though Apple greatly outperformed, up 45 percent since late November vs. a 20 percent return in the NASDAQ and 7 percent in the S&P 500, in the same time period, we believe there is still room for sizable upside as investors gain more confidence and Apple trades closer to its 'normal' 20x-25x multiple," he wrote. "We find Apple's stock performance impressive in light of it sporting one of the largest market capitalizations in technology."

Similarly, Caris & Co. analyst Robert Cihra also used a research note Monday to raise his price target on Apple from $120 to $150 per share. He told clients that he believes the Cupertino-based company is shaking up the billion-unit cell phone industry with its near $1 billion App Store business, which may be under-appreciated by investors.

Cihra also spoke favorably of upcoming iPhone production builds and said it's possible Apple is working on an answer to the Netbook market through a device that will look like a "7-inch iPhone."

"In particular, with Windows 7 now set to add native touchscreen support, including multi-finger touch, we imagine Apple will want to have a competing large-screen touch Mac computing platform, particularly given its own in-house capacitive touch- sensing technologies," he wrote. "In contrast to today’s netbooks, which are essentially de-spec’d notebooks, Apple doesn’t do cheap, Apple does different."

After bleeding more than 55 percent of their value to fall from a high of $192.24 to $85.35 during the back half of 2008, shares of Apple are up more than 40 percent since the start of the new year, currently trading at $120.12 on the Nasdaq stock market.

Cihra also spoke favorably of upcoming iPhone production builds and said it's possible Apple is working on an answer to the Netbook market through a device that will look like a "7-inch iPhone."

Anyone (analyst) who thinks this device will have a 7" screen, in my opinion clearly has no clue what they are talking about. The screen certainly won't be under 9", and will far more likely be 10.1. Every time I hear someone arguing for the 7" tablet I never hear a good reason as to why it should be such a size, not once have I.

Next they'll be saying it should be an iPhone without the phone part, forgetting the iPod touch exists.

Anyone (analyst) who thinks this device will have a 7" screen, in my opinion clearly has no clue what they are talking about. The screen certainly won't be under 9", and will far more likely be 10.1. Every time I hear someone arguing for the 7" tablet I never hear a good reason as to why it should be such a size, not once have I.

Next they'll be saying it should be an iPhone without the phone part, forgetting the iPod touch exists.

Agreed, a seven inch screen seems to be too big to fit in your pocket but too small to be a notebook replacement. 9 or 10 seems much more likely. So will it have a keyboard? Or touchscreen only?

Trust me, there is nothing that Shaw Wu could say that would affect the price of AAPL. Apple's stock is reacting to the general sentiment of the market... in addition, all of the recent big jumps in the stock happened last week.

"However, it appears that investor sentiment has turned a bit more constructive and [they are] willing to pay for quality names as we have seen with Apple, Research in Motion, Google, and Amazon," he wrote.

Wow, what a shock, investors are willing to buy into companies with strong brands and future growth plans. Sure there are "values" out there with a P/E below 10, but as an investor that means they're future is harder to predict overall and are overly focused on quarterly earnings than long term growth.

The current run up in price (not just in Apple) seems pretty scary to me. I am in cash - unfortunately I sold out my apple calls when the stock was at $97, but it could be back there in a heartbeat so I am not going back in until we get a significant correction.

There are so many things that could knock the market back down again...

Anyone (analyst) who thinks this device will have a 7" screen, in my opinion clearly has no clue what they are talking about. The screen certainly won't be under 9", and will far more likely be 10.1. Every time I hear someone arguing for the 7" tablet I never hear a good reason as to why it should be such a size, not once have I.

Next they'll be saying it should be an iPhone without the phone part, forgetting the iPod touch exists.

This will be a BIG gamechanger- not only in the Netbook world but also Apple itself.
The MBAir will most surely go "bye- bye".

Anyone (analyst) who thinks this device will have a 7" screen, in my opinion clearly has no clue what they are talking about. The screen certainly won't be under 9", and will far more likely be 10.1. Every time I hear someone arguing for the 7" tablet I never hear a good reason as to why it should be such a size, not once have I.

Next they'll be saying it should be an iPhone without the phone part, forgetting the iPod touch exists.

It's sad that some of us with real "skin in the game" are at the mercy of buffoons and blowhards that call themselves "analysts."

Until Jon Stewart confronted Jim Cramer, I always thought that the manipulation of Apple's stock price was just a product of my paranoid imagination. Now, I see evidence that I was indeed right!

I hope President Obama's SEC will take its job seriously and make sure that we ordinary investors don't get jerked around by crooks like Cramer. Being in Bush's SEC must have been the easiest job ever -- the less you did the better.

I heard that Obama had a hard time filling to top post at FEMA. It turns out that there are not many people with the Arabian horse knowledge that is vital for that job.

"In particular, with Windows 7 now set to add native touchscreen support, including multi-finger touch, we imagine Apple will want to have a competing large-screen touch Mac computing platform, particularly given its own in-house capacitive touch- sensing technologies," he wrote. "In contrast to today’s netbooks, which are essentially de-spec’d notebooks, Apple doesn’t do cheap, Apple does different."

Anyone (analyst) who thinks this device will have a 7" screen, in my opinion clearly has no clue what they are talking about. The screen certainly won't be under 9", and will far more likely be 10.1. Every time I hear someone arguing for the 7" tablet I never hear a good reason as to why it should be such a size, not once have I.

Next they'll be saying it should be an iPhone without the phone part, forgetting the iPod touch exists.

The larger this device gets, the more expensive it gets.

The larger this device gets, the harder it will be to take with you.

The larger this device gets, the more likely developers will have to modify their apps.

While I have never argued for a 7" screen, I have pointed out that I believe a 5" screen may be coming. Why? A 5" screen is just two 3.5" screens. Apple already orders tons of these 3.5" screens. The cost of two in a device is manageable and still can be priced appropriately, at a premium to the iPod touch, and still in the premium range of netbooks.

A 5" screen made out of two 3.5" screens could be in a folding formfactor. That way, it would be the same size as a current iPhone when folded, perhaps slightly thicker for a larger battery to power the two screens. Obviously, when unfolded, it would appear as a single screen.

Two 3.5" screens, would have a common VGA proportions, one that iTunes movies would fit without reformatting. The screens would allow easy scalability for existing apps, so that developers would not need to modify, but could if they wished. Two screens could be used DS style, or could be used as one screen.

I think a 10" device would be too expensive, and too small a niche, even for Apple to want to play in. The key is to scale up what is existing. Scaling up is incremental and iterative. A folding device with two of the existing 3.5" screens to make a 5" one, is still pocketable. The costs and pricing of such a device fits Apple's current line, and would still be price competitive with existing netbooks. The need for modifying current apps and movies and such would be minimal.

Apple wants to extend its lead. Throwing out its huge lead in apps, is crazy. Any solution has to allow easy use of existing apps and media, and not require wholesale reformatting for a new screensize.

The larger this device gets, the more likely developers will have to modify their apps.

While I have never argued for a 7" screen, I have pointed out that I believe a 5" screen may be coming. Why? A 5" screen is just two 3.5" screens. Apple already orders tons of these 3.5" screens. The cost of two in a device is manageable and still can be priced appropriately, at a premium to the iPod touch, and still in the premium range of netbooks.

A 5" screen made out of two 3.5" screens could be in a folding formfactor. That way, it would be the same size as a current iPhone when folded, perhaps slightly thicker for a larger battery to power the two screens. Obviously, when unfolded, it would appear as a single screen.

Two 3.5" screens, would have a common VGA proportions, one that iTunes movies would fit without reformatting. The screens would allow easy scalability for existing apps, so that developers would not need to modify, but could if they wished. Two screens could be used DS style, or could be used as one screen.

I think a 10" device would be too expensive, and too small a niche, even for Apple to want to play in. The key is to scale up what is existing. Scaling up is incremental and iterative. A folding device with two of the existing 3.5" screens to make a 5" one, is still pocketable. The costs and pricing of such a device fits Apple's current line, and would still be price competitive with existing netbooks. The need for modifying current apps and movies and such would be minimal.

Apple wants to extend its lead. Throwing out its huge lead in apps, is crazy. Any solution has to allow easy use of existing apps and media, and not require wholesale reformatting for a new screensize.

Wouldn't an 8.5x11" device (or maybe A4 sized for international markets) make the most sense, then? It could replace all paper notebooks. Considering how close to the edge of a device the screen can get these days that would probably be a roughly 8x10" screen, or between 12 and 13" diagonally.

Wouldn't an 8.5x11" device (or maybe A4 sized for international markets) make the most sense, then? It could replace all paper notebooks. Considering how close to the edge of a device the screen can get these days that would probably be a roughly 8x10" screen, or between 12 and 13" diagonally.

That would be amazing provided it's has the thickness of an iPod Touch. That would probably seal the fate of the MB Air.
It would definitely deflate the Air's sales.

I don't see why, at least not based on the release of a tablet, they are totally different products for totally different markets.

It would be lighter and do much more than an MBAir. Not only that but also much cooler than the Air. Who would want it (MBA) after seeing a supersized full OS'd lighter Touch Tablet? It would do everything an Air does as well as handle iPhone APPs but not the other way around.
But then again the Air can run Windoze.

It would be lighter and do much more than an MBAir. Not only that but also much cooler than the Air. Who would want it (MBA) after seeing a supersized full OS'd lighter Touch Tablet? It would do everything an Air does as well as handle iPhone APPs but not the other way around.
But then again the Air can run Windoze.

While it may do iPhone apps, I don't think it's a safe assumption that it will necessarily do everything the MBA does, at least as well as it does.

The MBA has a bigger screen and a keyboard, and probably will have a faster processor, more ram, and more hard drive space. For anyone doing lots of typing, I think the MBA would still be more appealing.

Trust me, there is nothing that Shaw Wu could say that would affect the price of AAPL. Apple's stock is reacting to the general sentiment of the market... in addition, all of the recent big jumps in the stock happened last week.

I thought exactly that when I saw this post. "all of the recent big jumps in the stock happened last week"

Shares of Apple continue to make forward progress this week with as a pair of Wall Street analysts issuing new research reports that raise their price target on the stock in light of upcoming product catalyst.

But what about the reverse progress? And what sort mishigas is " in light of upcoming product catalyst"? Me thinks Kasper needs a better ghost writer.

Trust me, there is nothing that Shaw Wu could say that would affect the price of AAPL. Apple's stock is reacting to the general sentiment of the market... in addition, all of the recent big jumps in the stock happened last week.

Does anyone take these clowns seriously anymore? It's hard not to giggle when I read this stuff.